Have you ever seen a plant or animal in your area and wondered what it was or wanted to share it with other interested people? It turns out your iPhone provides the perfect companion for a hike into nature.

Today we’ve got a few apps to check out the next time you decide to take a break from civilization and explore the great outdoors.

Smartphones and apps are accused of making us less social and more glued to screens than ever before. Most of us argue that apps help our lives, but in all honesty, most of us should spend a lot more time outdoors than we really do. So the question is, “can an iPhone app can inspire you to get out and explore the real world around you more?”

Project Noah just might be the solution. This award-winning app makes it easy to discover the wildlife right around you and share your own wildlife discoveries with the world. Whether it’s a deer in the woods, a snake in your garage, or that tree around the corner that you’ve always wondered about, we all have wildlife around us that we’d love to share with the world. Project Noah inspires you to find out what’s living around you to help both you and others learn more about our planet. Before we put on our hiking boots and hit the trail, let’s take a closer look.